Mum's outrage over daughter's 'skimpy' bikini prize shuts down site

Mother accuses local swimwear label of exploiting teens on social media

A mother has shared a message of outrage after her teenage daughter won a "skimpy" bikini in a competition online – but hundreds of women have leapt to the defence of the label, saying it can't be held responsible for what they believe is a parenting concern.

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Mum Tania Swan posted about her experience on activist website Collective Shout, which lobbies against the objectification and and sexualisation of women and girls.

In the Thursday post, Swan explained that she'd seen her 16-year-old daughter receive the offending garment in the mail.

Her daughter had apparently never ordered online before, but explained to Swan she'd won the bikini in an Instagram competition by being the last person to comment on a post by the company, Makana Swim.

"I looked at the top. It was indeed her favourite colour," Swan wrote.

"When I looked at the bottom, I realised that it was a thong/g-string! I told her that she wasn’t going to wear that. She insisted that she could sunbake with it in our backyard. This is not appropriate as at times, people can see into our backyard."

Swan shared this image of the bikini received by her 16-year-old daughter in the mail. (Collective Shout)

Swan says she found the idea someone would give her daughter free revealing swimwear suspicious. She demanded to know if she'd been asked to "take photos". Although her daughter said no, Swan was shocked by the message that accompanied the package – which included a request to tag any social media posts with the company account.

The message Swan says came with the swimsuit. (Collective Shout)

This is standard practice for many emerging labels who try to build awareness of their brand through customer word-of-mouth, and the #MakanaSwim hashtag can be seen elsewhere on Instagram.

But it was of little comfort to Swan, who didn't want her daughter's "half-naked body" being used to advertise a product.

"Playing on the tendency of this age group to want to be in ‘hot demand’," she wrote. "Isn’t that every girl’s dream?"

Swan's post suggested that the swimwear brand's marketing tactics could be seen as "sexual exploitation" and "economic exploitation", and expressed concern about young girls such as her daughter engaging with them online unbeknownst to their parents.

During the backlash that followed, Makana Swim not only removed its Facebook and Instagram accounts, but also disabled its official site.

Opinions are divided. Many have criticised Swan for targeting and possibly negatively impacting a small business with her comments.

"Perhaps this mother needs to focus on mindful conversations with her daughter regarding social media use and not take it out on an Australian small business," wrote one social media user. "You don’t like the swimwear cut, move on. It’s nothing that 16-year old-girl couldn’t buy at Cotton On, sheesh."

"Iif this mother was so concerned over this maybe she should be more aware of what her daughter is doing rather then blaming some small business," wrote another. "As far as this grandma is concerned if your[sic] so upset over the bikini bottom get her to throw a pair of shorts over them. Storm in a teacup I think."

"Perhaps the parent needs to be aware of what competitions the child is entering," another person commented. "Perhaps, as the parent doesn't approve of the child wearing a g-string, perhaps the parent can throw the garment in the bin."

It has also emerged that the competition in question was reportedly only open to entrants over 18.

Images from the currently disabled Makana Swim website. (makanaswim.com.au)

"Unless her daughter advised the company of her age, how exactly were they to know?" one commenter asked.

"I think it is merely a misunderstanding that has turned into a witch hunt that has the potential to destroy a business! Once again, I am not trying to mitigate the mother’s outrage (although I think it should be more focused at the daughter and her lack of communication) this could of easily been resolved by contacting the company and removing the swimwear from the daughters care!"

Still, many others are standing by Swan – and her parenting.

"Thanks for this," someone wrote below the post. "This is so inappropriate and predatory for this company to target teenage girls in this way. It's a good thing her mother was switched on!"